Linda thinks about the experience of having cancer in a different way than she did before

Transcript

How it has kind of changed me? It – well, I – it certainly helped me think about, from a personal point of view, what’s important to me, going forward, how I think about the cancer experience, how I think about cancer. But bigger – sort of a bigger picture than that, what really I’ve learned, is how to place this in the big picture, because – so I’ve come into contact with a lot of patients. I didn’t really talk to patients during my treatment, I mean, other than saying hello in the waiting room, or in the treatment room. Having a chat when you were in treatment, I didn’t talk to patients, per se, about the process, but I have encountered a lot of patients, and people talk about their experience differently. But what I’ve come to appreciate, is even though it is about the patient, and it is about patient-centred care, and focus is very important, but to really make it work, and understand it, it’s been interesting to see that in the context of the healthcare system, and clinicians, and administrative staff, and how it all – and I – what I try to do as a patient partner, advisor representative, however you want to look at it, is to think about my contribution, or my comments, in terms of the big picture, unless somebody specifically asks me how I feel personally about something, or my experience, but as a contributor to the projects, how that fits into the whole picture, hoping that can be more workable in some ways. Because sometimes somebody’s personal opinion is not – you can’t do – can’t always do anything with it, and I’d like to think about that contribution in terms of how it can fit in constructively to the big picture. So that would be my biggest lesson, my biggest – my key learning point from my experience over the past nine years, eight/nine years, yeah.

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